The Tea Thread

A moment of silence for the stuff your cats broke.

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My dad drunks puerh exclusively after I introduced him to it. I got him a 1lb bag of it from Yunnan sourcing, and was probably his favorite gift of the year.

 

Puerh is great but becomes flavor overload at five cups a day.

 

This is probably horrifying to purists most sensible humans, but my usual afternoon cuppa is two cakes of cooked Puerh: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OLJRBI

 

Raw or Sheng puerh can be more subtle, but it's very much an acquired taste. I've also only ever had one young sheng puerh that wasn't as bitter as my Ex, and that stuff was not cheap, even by my standards. 7 years or forget it.

I'm personally all for whatever works. The foal of all tea equipment is to make good tea, and if it's cheap but works fine, I'm all for it. I have a Bonavita gooseneck I got from our friends at Massdrop, it's pretty great. Temperature control, can have it hold the water at that temperature, and the slower pouring prevents some of the usual mess associated with chinese-style tea brewing.

Not familiar with that particular brand, but there are many good mini tuocha types out there. I'm partial to some mini bingcha from Verdant, where they left the fermenting tea with sweet corn that imparts an interesting taste. The one's I've had are very easy to brew, not too picky like green or white tea.

 

I've been drinking masala chai for,hmmm... maybe twenty years. half milk, half water, tea, sugar, spice powder (no, sorry, I don't add fresh spices!) and boil it all up. Whilst it is not true that, in this mixture, all teas taste the same, it is true that using anything really fancy would be like pouring ginger ale on expensive brandy. I wouldn't think of using stuff like Darjeeling, that I used to enjoy in tea made the English way.

When I visited London last year, of course, I took my favourite tea masala with me, and then went shopping for PG Tips. Really hard to find now, except in tea bags. Nobody seems to sell, or want to buy, the loose tea any longer. Finally found it in some upmarket supermarket --- which is ridiculous, because teabags cost more per cup, and poorer people should be still using leaves in a pot!

I have a Japanese teapot, which a head-office colleague left behind, and was still there when the office closed down. Decorative use only!

I also have a fancy flask and glasses from the days when saki was my favourite tipple --- before goiing "tea-"total.

Cat breakages... sympathy to all, but, maybe you counselling is needed here. Maybe you need sit and talk out this wolf/cat thing with them? Or maybe it's the crypto thing, even?

 

I'd like to counsel the little furry terrorists with a water bottle, but sadly my wife loves them. My tea ware now lives in my home office where they are not aloud to go.

I also have the zojirushi boiler and leave it set at 205. It works great and I seldom hear it cycle. My unit is fairly well insulated.

 

The boil function makes sense here in Chicago where we have lots of chlorine in our water. Without boiling first, our tap water imparts a certain flavor.

I can see this feature wasting energy in other locations though.

 

Wouldn't one of those charcoal-filter jugs remove it? I don't know, I was never in to them (or bottled water; what a scam!) back in UK, but I bought a drinking-water bottle with a charcoal filter for an India trip (it clogged in a week) and it certainly made my London tap water taste different, which I assumed was probably because of less chlorine.

 

They do, that's what I use to deal with the shit water at my apartment.

 

Sure, a carbon filter would also work, though the Zojirushi is more convenient for me since I just pour in tap water. The boil feature takes care of the chlorine, and the bi-monthly descaling eliminates the residual from the hard water.

 

In Britain you can always find loose tea in the Co-op (the proper big stores, not the express/corner shop ones). They have their own branded "Fairtrade" certified teas. If you like an Indian tea their "Indian Prince" brand is decent enough. I prefer a stronger blend, the kind of stuff which stains you red from the inside out and wakes you up nicely in the morning so I drink Co-op 99 by the (warmed) pot several times a day. It's a blend of Indian and East African and is properly strong and gives your bladder a good work out. It would be the right stuff for when you're ready to put on a very dirty vest, muss up your bad imitation of a bollywood haircut, scratch your privates unashamedly whenever bored, and open your own genuine Indian chai shop.

If you go to a big Tesco or Sainsbury's supermarket you can also get their own brand loose tea. In Sainsbury you can choose Assam, Ceylon, Kenya and so on as you like and I recall it being pretty good. Tesco's "Finest" breakfast tea is pretty good. Also Waitrose supermarket loose teas are nice.

 

The way I learnt it (from my Southern Indian music teacher) in London, is the boil everything method, and that is the way that stuck with me. The Tea Masters in the small tea shops here, boil milk and tea separately. Makes the milk thicker and the tea creamier.

I'd love to try tea with Buffalo milk, but I can't get it, except, maybe, from local milkman, and the buffaloes would probably have been in the local canal, which is as much a sewer as a canal. No thanks!

I can see from your avatar that you are the kind of guy who wants the spoon to stand up in your cup! Real working-mans'-caff tea! Damn, I could murder a decent greasy-spoon fry up right now!

I don't think I'll be able to visit what-they-call-here my native place again until at least 2017. I hope those places will still have the loose leaf tea!

 

Today I'm having a very nice Shui Xian oolong, which is a medium roast Wuyi-style tea. It comes from Yunnan Sourcing, the most intimidating tea site to try to navigate ever conceived by man. It's not a complex tea, but it's very smooth with a sorta sweet taste. Most importantly, It's getting me through my workday after 5 hours of sleep due to the asshats clearing the parking lot last night.

 

Oh man, a friend is taking a tea sommelier class to try to make a living. Should be interesting to watch it play out for him.

Hope to score some Pu-erh off it.

 

Anyone here try Tibetan butter tea?

It hardens the arteries something fierce!

 

I too am a tea 'aficionado'.
I have a bunch of pots, a bunch of oolongs etc.

Here in Seattle we have direct access to Taiwan growers, which is where my 'collection' comes from.

My favorite is Bai Hou, but I haven't been able to get the 'good stuff' for a long time.

If you EVER get a chance to sample some Bai Hou, the 'good stuff' that is well made do NOT pass up the opportunity.

It is unique as far as any tea I have ever had and highly sought after.
It is twice fermented loose leaf oolong that has a pheromone nose, has fruit flavors and has an after taste that hangs for ever.

Very unusual tea.

JJ